Sunday, September 7, 2008

Unemployment: A Global Change

Every country is tightening their belts as ripples of inflation hit across continental seas. It may be a product of the credit crunch tied up with high pricing of oil. Everyone is affected one way or another, ask United States to tell the story.

United States, being the economic and powerful giant, is pained greatly. They are in recession. A country as powerful as this always stood as a beacon of opportunities, and not a dessert of credit crisis and unemployment. Eastern folks or folks across the globe go to the States to enjoy a liberated and a democratic setting while nurturing a much sustainable lifestyle. But the bubble of security and luxury that most enjoy in their "greener pasture" is slowing deflating.

It's not new to hear that unemployment rates are steeping high in the states. US Jobless rate rises past 6% since 2003. According to Bureau labor of statistics in US, 84,000 jobs have been shed. If you're thinking that these jobs are merely in production, since most of the factories have closed shop, well think again. If you're following the business news, eversince the first quarter of this year, Investment bankers in the struggling financial corporations such as Citigroup, Sachs, Lynch and Morgan Stanley to name a few, contribute greatly to this statistics. But statistics have its own way creeping at our everyday lives. My friends and I have experienced it. Bags, a friend of mine, was assigned in London for three months in Morgan Stanley Headquarters. On her last day, before she goes back to the Philippines, there were bankers who got sacked. I for one was employed by a thriving start up company based in New York. We expanded and faced lots of opportunities and funding, but slowly ended up in a drastic liquidation process in New York, then in the Philippines. I've read lifestyle news feature that coincide with the economic meltdowns where investment bankers, who enjoyed a stable and flamboyant economy before, are now faced to sell their respective apartments in very reputable locations. Other real estate agents know as much about the unemployment crisis, that some refuse to entertain tenants who hail from the financial sectors.

Now that US is facing recession, factories and businesses started to close down, reshape and move elsewhere. This is where Eastern countries, like the Philippines and India, come in. We're not only talking about Call Center Posts. We're emphasizing on OPERATIONS.

It's true that outsourcing initially only meant doing Call Center deliverables, but not any more. Outsourcing eventually takes in the more complex, in house operations of global companies. Taking example Accenture, which is a leading global company in Outsourcing. The organization that started offering outsourced services of IT consultants to global companies, expanded by offering more services by hiring analysts, specialists in the fields touching research, accountancy, data management and procurement. Other outsourcing companies are Convergy's, IBM Services, RR Donnelly and other minor local outsourcing corporations. Companies like these have a considerable spike up in their revenues.

However, other global corporations such as Citigroup, Deutsche and HSBC have tapped the Eastern market and have pooled qualified resources to do Shared Services operations. Shared services is quite different from"outsourcing." In Shared Services there is no third party involvement. Employees are hired and included in the company roster. Shared services are done by bigger and global corporations to extend their operations in low-cost areas. Some operations like data analysis, accountancy, financial reporting from the US is immediately transferred to hired Citigroup employees in Korea, Philippines, India or even Costa Rica. In Shared services, Benefits and positions are recognized across the globe under one company. Citigroup now currently transfers data and key operations to strategic points in the world. In 2003, Deutsche has set up their regional office in the Philippines with regards to doing their change planning management, business analysis, IT and accounting services. They haven't stopped since. They saw the improvement in cutting down their expenses while there's the availability of resources here. Currently, they're relocating for a much bigger office to accommodate another round of massive hiring. HSBC in the meantime, is slowly setting up their operations unit here in the Philippines that would manage other global HSBC operations aside from the already established HSBC call center. Some companies like Chevron and Shell have already followed suit.

Some Western managers were even forced to relocate to different Asian countries just to continue working with the corporation. They've rendered sacrifices to leave everything behind just to go through this new global organization model. All in all, we are all in the phase of adjusting and establishing the new structure.

As businesses are thriving here whether it may be in outsourcing or shared services, it's quite understandable that some of our western counterparts see this as a major contributor to the rising US unemployment rate. Politicians have greatly expressed their views in it. Some conservatives bash outsourcing, some liberals encourage the global trend. Some analysts here in the Philippines, especially in operations and data migration, are continuously experiencing heated discussions with their western counterparts just because the westerners are uncomfortable with CHANGE going against them. Some call center agents, even manage to receive slip-ups of rants from their Western counterparts. "You stole my job!" Sometimes, you just have to let it go. Sometimes you have to understand it in their perspective. It's not advisable to just think that "you were just hired for it" and couldn't care less. It's better to be sensitive about it. It makes one appreciate life more.

A charismatic and enthralling Citigroup Business Services Regional Head, Nigel Romano, mentioned in our recent Town Hall that in this job and time where everything's gone global, we would be dealing with co-analysts and business partners all over the globe. We may be having constant conference calls with different Asians, Europeans and Latin Americans at the same time. We are being multi-cultural in business structure. Some are not going to be nice to us, especially if change and migration are involved. We just have to "accept it and respect it." There's no other way. Change is very difficult and painful. It's difficult for people who will be managing change and it's painful for people who will be submitting to change.

That's why when you see news like rise in unemployment rates, even if it's not within the confines of your geographic territory, one should be sensitive about this. Change is painful and difficult. It's not something done overnight in a global scale. In order to do so, one has to know his position to be able to understand this modern "wheel of fortune." Now it's become a global turn and every turn orchestrates a certain change. If people could extend their ounce of understanding, then encourage them, because there is nothing as painful in losing a certain relationship with a person, and having to lose a job that you love and sustains you.

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